Many computer terminals, which are installed in a financial institution, e.g., a bank for business use, are connected to a center computer via private lines. Conventionally, data processing such as payment, transfer, withdrawal of deposit, or deposit is performed by utilizing data communication between the center computer and each terminal.
In this case, each terminal, which is installed at a business department of the financial institution, is operated by employees, and a so-called general purpose personal computer is generally used as the terminal.
Recently, a data processing system has been proposed and developed, in which a customer directly operates a terminal by way of an IC card, which the customer owns, from the home or in a financial institution, and in which data processing such as payment, transfer, deposit, automatic withdrawal of the deposit, or check of the balance of accounts is performed by a computer.
In the above case, if the terminal, which is installed at the home or in the financial institution, is such a general purpose personal computer as described above, anybody can access data. Therefore, there can be the great possibility that the data is damaged or the important data is read out and fraudulently used.
For the above reason, it can be considered that a dedicated terminal be provided. In such case, however, there is a problem in that the number of dedicated terminals connected to a center computer becomes greater than in a conventional system.
In order to cope with the increase in the number of dedicated terminals connected to the center computer, the center computer having a large processing capability which can correspond to the many dedicated terminals may be introduced. However, there is a problem in that great cost is required and a conventional computer system must be wasted. In addition, it has been considered that an intermediate apparatus for processing data from the many terminals be provided. However, there is a problem in that the data processing system becomes complicated.